ns, who succeeded to one another in a very rapid succession. The first
was the person of whom we have read an account to you. He was the
natural son of the Nabob by a person called Munny Begum, who, for the
corrupt gifts the circumstances of which we have recited, had, in
prejudice of the lawful issue of the Nabob, been raised to the _musnud_;
but as bastard slips, it is said in King Richard, (an abuse of a
Scripture phrase,) do not take deep root, this bastard slip, Nujim ul
Dowlah, shortly died, and the legitimate son, Syef ul Dowlah, succeeded
him. After him another legitimate son, Mobarek ul Dowlah, succeeded in a
minority. When I say _succeeded_, I wish your Lordships to understand
that there is no regular succession in the office of subah or viceroy
of the kingdom; but, in general, succession has been considered, and
persons have been put in that place upon some principles resembling a
regular succession. That regular succession had been broken in favor of
a natural son, and the mother of that natural son did obtain the
superiority in the female part of the family for a time.

In consequence of these two circumstances, namely, the famine, and the
abuses that were supposed to arise from it, and from the circumstance of
the minority of Mobarek ul Dowlah, who now reigns or appears to
reign,--in consequence of these two circumstances, the Company gave two
sets of orders.

The first order related to Mahomed Reza Khan, who was (as your Lordships
remember I took, in the beginning of this affair, means of explaining)
lord-deputy of the province under the native government, the English
holding the dewanny,--and deputy dewan, or high-steward, under the name
of the English, and had the command of the whole revenue; and who was
accused before the Company (the channel of which accusation we now
learn) of having aggravated that famine by a monopoly for his own
benefit. The Company, upon these loose and general charges, ordered that
he should be divested of his office, that he should be brought down to
Calcutta, and there be obliged to render an account of his conduct.

The next regulation they made was concerning the effective government of
the country, which was become vacant by the removal of Mahomed Reza
Khan. The offices which he held were in effect these: he was guardian to
the Nabob by the appointment of the Company; he had the care and
management of his family; he had the care of the public justice; and he
represented